The Library of Not-Knowing understands knowledge as something that emerges through an open, intense and humble encounter with the unknown. It emerges from the realities of contemporary ruptures – from ecological breakdown to the rapid expansion of computational technology in everyday life. The Library draws on ecstatic traditions, theology, philosophy, advanced technology, ecological thought and artistic practice, asking how these traditions might inform debates around artificial intelligence, planetary systems and new forms of art-making. 

In his lecture-performance, writer Dirk Vis explores this fictional institution, and the impossibility of systematising forms of not-knowing, through art and design works from widely different timeframes and cultures. As one Library visitor put it: “we may visit the Library of Not-Knowing every time we successfully create something, whether we work in science, art or any other field.”The lecture-performance is an early emergence from The Library of Not-Knowing: Devotional Writings for Research and Art, a forthcoming reader, edited by curator and researcher Lucia Pietroiusti and Dirk Vis, gathering historical, contemporary and new texts on the concept of not-knowing. The volume investigates traditions that treat mystery, uncertainty, receptivity, intimacy and extreme attention as the fundamental ground for the unfolding of thought, art and spiritual life. Here, not-knowing stands as a necessary and reparative condition for planetary thriving, and as the place out of which art, poetry, invention and ecstasy take shape together.

Dirk Vis writes fiction, non-fiction, essays, and poetry. Vis spends his working time between the Netherlands, London and forests everywhere. His books have been published in Dutch and English: the novel Paren of de kunst van de slaapkamer, the (anti-)manual for artistic research Research for People Who (Think They) Would Rather Create, and most recently his book Study Trip, on psychedelics for research and art. His work has been translated to German, Spanish and Korean. Vis is research and writing lecturer at the Piet Zwart Institute and the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, and the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, besides regularly speaking and teaching as a guest lecturer at various universities internationally. In 2024 he was a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study. A first collection of his poetry is forthcoming, as well as the reader The Library of Not-Knowing, co-edited with Lucia Pietroiusti.